


time and time and time again

by salazarastark



Category: Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
Genre: F/M, Time Loop, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-26
Updated: 2019-01-26
Packaged: 2019-10-16 09:07:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,429
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17546762
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/salazarastark/pseuds/salazarastark
Summary: Ever since he was little, Darcy has had a power.





	time and time and time again

**Author's Note:**

  * For [renaissance](https://archiveofourown.org/users/renaissance/gifts).



> Thank you to Prinzenhasserin for their help in betaing!

Since Darcy had been a small boy, he had a gift, one that had been passed down his patrilineal line for generations. While the gift had skipped his father, his grandfather had inherited it as well and he taught Darcy as much as he could.

Darcy had discovered his powers during a lesson, when he had given the wrong answer to a very simple question because he had been distracted by the swans on the lake. George and Francis had laughed at him, and Darcy remembered vividly how his cheeks had flamed at their teasing laughs. He had closed his eyes and wished to reverse what happened.

At that moment, he’d felt a tug at his navel, and when he opened his eyes, he found to his shock and amazement that he was actually moving into the past, the actions of the last few moments quickly reversing backward. Just before he had given the wrong answer, he closed his eyes and felt the tug again. To his joy and relief, he gave the correct answer this time and was not treated with mocking scorn.

When he saw his grandfather later that day, the man had somehow already known everything that had happened. How, Darcy was never quite sure, but nevertheless, the old man took Darcy under his wing and showed him everything he could do with this power, the origin of which neither Darcy nor his grandfather knew.

It was a unique talent, but in truth Darcy never had much occasion to use his gift. He never made any terrible blunder that could be fixed in ten minutes, which was the farthest the power allowed you to go. More than anything else, he wished to change the past so that his father would never set eyes on Wickham, but alas, the seed of that particular weed had been planted many years ago, and he couldn't change the actions of someone else anyway, only those of his own doing..

The first time his power was useful had been when he proposed to Miss Elizabeth Bennet.

The look on her face after he gotten through his proposal, hoping that she would understand what a sacrifice it was to ask her to marry him, a woman from an inferior family.

To put it lightly, she had not. In fact, she had told him in no uncertain terms that he was the last man that she could ever be prevailed upon to marry.

The words had hurt him. Deeply. He had meant what he said, about how he admired and loved her. Elizabeth Bennet was a woman unlike any other, one that he would never have thought to marry before meeting her. She was brightly intelligent and keen-eyed, with a sharp tongue and kind smile. He saw how she was with her family, and while he thought they did not deserve to have such a woman in their midst, he could not deny that she watched over them well, making sure that they were all happy and content as they could be.

In fact, her family was truly the only complaint he could have against a woman such as her.

Yet it seemed that she had many complaints against him, chief among them being how he persuaded Bingley away from the fickle Jane Bennet and how he had successfully fended off Wickham from his and Georgiana’s life.

He had known she was passingly acquainted with Wickham, but he had not realized that Wickham could have poisoned her against him in that short amount of time, a great failure on his part which he had to contend with now. How was he to know that Jane Bennet had cared about Bingley that much, to be as saddened by the rejection as Elizabeth was claiming? The woman was always placid.

As she finished her ranting about how terribly he insulted her with his proposal-- how he was, indeed, the last man in the world that she could ever be prevailed upon to marry-- and turned around to leave him alone in the rain, he closed his eyes and took himself back.

*

“Miss Bennet,” he said. “I have something I must confess to you.”

This time he could see the suspicion and the disgust in her eyes. The pang of her rejection-that-never-was sat deep in his heart, but he pushed the feeling down deep inside of him. “What is it?” she asked, her tone guarded.

“I must tell you that I respect and admire you. I have the deepest regard of you that a man can have for a woman. But I also regret to tell you that your family’s manner leaves much to be desired. They are coarse and ill-mannered, and they will prevent you from making any sort of advantageous marriage. I also must confess that I convinced Bingley to leave upon your sister, as she gave no indication that she felt anything beyond friendship for him. Lastly, I must tell, terminate your relationship with Wickham. He is a crueler man than he appears, and you would be far better by cutting him off.” He finished his speech, hoping that this time she understood where he is coming from.

She did not.

“Sir,” she spat out in barely suppressed fury. “I have no idea what would have made you decide to tell me that, what would have made you tell me such terrible things about my family, but I must insist that you stop. I have no wish to hear you belittle my family, and I have no wish for you to tell me what you assumed was in my sister’s heart, ruining her happiness. And how can I trust your opinion on Wickham, when you have offered no evidence on why you believe so? I must say, that while my opinion of you was low, I gave you the courtesy of never imaging the depths of rudeness you have achieved here today.”

She scoffed, and turned to leave him yet again.

He closed his eyes.

*

“I apologize for what I did to your sister,” he told Elizabeth bluntly. “I can see that I was wrong on my decision about her. I am sorry that your family as well-meaning as they might be, will prevent you from great opportunities one day. And I am sorry that Wickham has you under a spell, and I beseech you to let me break it by telling you his deeds.”

Elizabeth did not dignify that with a response, merely stared at him before turning around and walking away.

Darcy sighed.

He closed his eyes.

*

“It was my fault,” he said, this round, frazzled and desperate. She looked at him, surprised to see him in this state, but he did not care. “I was the one who convinced Bingley to forget about your sister, as I was convinced that she felt nothing more than friendship for him, and I did not want him to waste time on something I was convinced would hurt him.”

He skipped the reference to her family, knowing that while what he had said might be true, she was likely not to prepared to hear so in this moment.

“Really?” she questioned. “I had already been informed about your hand in the matter, but I am surprised that you’ve confessed it so.”

“Yes,” he stated fidgeting all the while. “And I regret that deeply, because I have become aware that your sister feels stronger about him than I realized, and the fact that I may have broken the happiness of two innocent people lays on me. I swear to you, I will make it up to them.”

Finally, she looked at him with no disgust in her eyes, and honest surprise, and Darcy felt like dancing because she no longer seemed to hate him. There was the matter of one more thing, however. He took a deep breath, and began the story of Wickham and what he had done to the Darcy family. By the end of it, her eyes were filled with shock and shame, at how the man had cruelly betrayed those who had cared for him and how he had manipulated Georgiana and then also her.

“Th-thank you.” She stumbled over her words. “For admitting the truth of Jane and Bingley and telling the truth about Wickham. And I apologize for my presumption of you.”

He bowed his head in acceptance, and watched her as she turned and left, an unexpected lightness in his heart, despite the fact that he had not managed to propose.

But the time for that was later.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed the fic!


End file.
